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Monday, February 06, 2012

Initial Feedback: The Sad Events Supporting Pessimism

Initial feedback: A completely subjective and immediate response to the events of tonight's game, featuring a comment and rating, the latter on a scale of 1 to 10, on every player who saw the floor and the head coach, along with ephemera and miscellany as the author deems necessary.

Your ratings and commentary, dear reader, are welcomed in the comments to this post.

PlayersJeff Teague: A constant in the team's poor pick-and-roll defense, he didn't do anything to mitigate his struggles on that end of the floor. 3/10

Joe Johnson: He was a key part of the Hawks' second and third quarter run. Not coincidentally, his involvement during that stretch was primarily as a finisher rather than a creator. It was painful watching him struggle to get past Steve Nash and Sebastian Telfair when the Hawks ran the 2/1 pick-and-roll. 5/10

Marvin Williams: If Larry Drew didn't play Marvin and Tracy McGrady together tonight, I think it's time to give up hope that it will ever happen. Not that either made a great case, within the confines of this game, for additional minutes. 4/10

Josh Smith: Much as with his shot selection this season, Josh Smith seemed either unaware or disinterested in the fact that Channing Frye can shoot. Smith had a good offensive night but his body language was atrocious, especially in the third quarter where he appeared far more interested in looking over at the bench than doing anything to change the course of the game. 5/10

Zaza Pachulia: A dreadful night for Pachulia, beaten repeatedly when attempting to defend the pick-and-roll and often out of position when the possibility of a rebound presented itself. 3/10

Kirk Hinrich: It didn't matter in the end, but Hinrich's second quarter defensive performance on Steve Nash was excellent. Given that none of Atlanta's big men defended the pick-and-roll effectively all night, his ability to delay the pick-and-roll's inception paid brief dividends. 6/10

Tracy McGrady: A complete non-factor. 1/10

Vladimir Radmanovic: Handed a third quarter stint after Pachulia pciked up his fourth foul, he looked like the third-best choice (after McGrady and Ivan Johnson) for those minutes. 2/10

Willie Green: His garbage time performance was clearly the best he could do and it's in no way his fault that his effort was useless. Context must be remembered if discussing how that performance might lead to future playing time. 6/10

Ivan Johnson: Pretty poor during the symmetrical portion of the game, he came alive when the Hawks went frantic against the Phoenix bench. 4/10

Jannero Pargo: Scrambled for a few minutes in the fourth quarter and shot the ball often. That's what he's paid for but the mountain was too steep long before he got on the floor. 3/10

Jerry Stackhouse: Four trillion. His contract becomes guaranteed with the week. 1/10

The head coachThe first three quarters were the Hawks at their familiar worst. Inconsistent on offense and disorganized defensively. The two are related, it's harder to get set defensively after a miss but the inability to get back and find your man is far from a new problem and only gets more frustrating to watch with each passing season. Whether it's a lack of depth or a lack of authority that allows accountability to wax and wane, doesn't really matter. The end of the bench played hard (albeit against a bad team's bad bench, hardly a harbinger of better things), letting them do that earlier in a game might produce dividends with regard to the guys who will have to play well for the Hawks to achieve any playoff success. 2/10

7 comments:

I think it's finally time to declare this is a poorly built team. And old bench each possessing few skills (one of them being the ability to jack up midrange shots), lack of competent centers, a disinterested semi-star, an overpaid semi-star, among other glaring weaknesses. In this situation, on-court X's and O's take a backseat and management squarely takes the blame for a weakly put-together team.

Wesley I must admit I was bedazzled by Vlad's few hot shooting games in the early season and didn't have a problem with him getting minutes. But as the season has worn on it's become clear that he's a major liability on the floor.

What is it with Larry Drew? You take away Josh Powell, take away Mike Bibby, Jason Collins gets hurt and he still finds a way to funnel minutes to the worst available option.

How does Kirk deserve a 6? I will admit he played well defensively against Nash, but continues to be worthless. He led the team in turnovers, and if I remember correctly, they were pretty careless turnovers. He also shot 14% (1/5 FG, 0/2 3PT) from the field. Albeit, he is coming back from injury, but this is pretty typical stuff from him. I have never understood why Hawks fans think he is still a valuable player. He is a middle of the road veteran player, who lacks a lot of athleticism. I have always believed that he isn't the right fit for the Hawks team and he continues to prove this. If there is anyone on the team who could be valuable in a trade and worth the Hawks getting rid of, it is Kirk.

Defense counts as much as offense and that good defense he played in the second quarter coincided with the Hawks getting back in the game. If making 14% of his shots truly was "pretty typical" he wouldn't be in the league even though he pulls off the trick of being simultaneously "worthless" and "valuable in a trade."

I get that it's tiring to reiterate how the Joe Johnson signing, Al Horford's injury, and Josh Smith's peculiarities define and limit this team but blaming a bad loss and the onset of reality on the backup point guard who plays good defense strains credulity.

Am I crazy? Isn't 1/5 FGA 20%? Where are you guys getting 14%? The three point attempts are just field goal attempts, same as two point attempts.

Also I agree about what Hinrich brings to the table defensively. His conditioning is only going to get better and while he's far from an elite shot creator, he's usually a capable distributor. I think the turnovers are a little bit of an aberration. He's been at about 2.0 turnovers/36 min for his career when he's not the primary ball handler/distributor as is the case now. I think the current 2.7 figure will regress back to the mean with better conditioning.